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Suicide pact behind 4 Quebec deaths

Sun., Jan. 4, 2009

SAGUENAY, Que.–A suicide pact between a Quebec couple was at the root of a family tragedy that left the husband and their three children dead and the wife facing three counts of first-degree murder, police said yesterday.

The woman, Kathy Gauthier-Lachance, 36, was undergoing treatment in hospital for severe blood loss and will likely be charged tomorrow, the CBC quoted Sgt. Richard Gagné of the Quebec provincial police as saying.

"She was taken there with slash wounds up her arms, we're told," a CBC reporter said.

Gagné said police have determined Marc Laliberté, 46, and his wife planned to commit suicide after killing their three children.

Laliberté's body and those of the couple's three children were found early Friday in the family bungalow in Saguenay's Chicoutimi borough, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City.

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"The woman participated in the death of her three children and police placed her under arrest in her hospital bed," Gagné said.

"The woman has not been interrogated yet – but the analysis of the scene and the clues we've gathered have brought us to this conclusion."

Police would not speculate on a motive for the deaths and Gagné said he wouldn't get into what prompted the pact, but there have been reports the family was mired in financial trouble.

Marc Laliberté worked in real estate, but had recently been laid off from his job, according to reports. A relative also confirmed the mother lost her retail job just before Christmas and that neither adult was working.

Gagné said police had met many friends and relatives of the couple but there were still others they needed to interview.

Police said it was the mother who called 911 asking for help just before midnight Thursday.

Officers who answered the call found her wounded inside the home, and made the grisly discovery of the other bodies in the house.

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Autopsies on the children – 12-year-old daughter Joelle, and sons Marc-André, 7, and 4-year-old Louis-Philippe – are scheduled to be performed tomorrow and Tuesday in Montreal.

An autopsy will also be performed on Laliberté, who likely took his own life, Gagné said.

Police investigators said no physical marks were found on the children's bodies and a spokesperson said it's possible they were either poisoned or suffocated.

"We can confirm that the bodies of the children did not seem to have any marks of violence," provincial police Sgt. Gregory Gomez del Prado said earlier yesterday.

"But, at this stage of the investigation, we cannot confirm or deny anything (about how they died)."

The family had lived in the Abitibi region in northwestern Quebec before relocating to Saguenay around August.

As a result, most shocked neighbours in the quiet, well-to-do residential neighbourhood knew little about the family.

Parents who murder their children sometimes suffer from a phenomenon called delusional altruism, says Beverly Beuermann-King, a stress and wellness specialist and former consultant to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

"In certain cultures and religions, it may be that (death) is seen as a viable alternative, it's not a negative thing. They may believe these children are going to be in pain, left alone, and struggling financially... They might think if they take their children's lives, they'll have more chance to go to heaven or are better taken care of."

In one major study reported in 2002 by Canadian doctors Dominique Bourget and Pierre Gagné, it was found that, over the past four decades, about 50 per cent of parents who murdered their children also made a successful or unsuccessful attempt at suicide.

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